The Cuban Love Song is the story of a selfish man who manages to both have his cake and eat it, yet manages to be enjoyable in spite of this.
Is Nenita (Lupe Velez) going to be amenable to the sweet talking of Terry (Lawrence Tibbett)? Of course she is.
This was, as well as being MGM’s last musical for a couple of years, the final film under Lawrence Tibbet’s contract with the studio. He handles himself very well in what is essentially a romance with music. Contemporaries may have smiled at well-known sex pot Lupe Velez playing a virginal peanut vendor, but she pulls it off, and her scenes with Tibbett are very believable, as is her faked bravura when she knows Tibbett has to leave her.
This is a pre-code musical with some pretty blatant out-of-wedlock sex, though the fact that Velez dies might have made Will Hays feel slightly better about it. The man, of course, ends up with a son and in a clinch with Karen Morley, who has little to do in the picture other than be a good egg, but she does it very well.
Crystal (Karen Morley) is told about Nenita, but she tells Terry she already knows
The optical printer had been in widespread use since 1927, and enabled The Cuban Love Song to achieve its most memorable sequence, when Lawrence Tibbett duets with himself, performing both baritone and tenor vocals. It was his last song in a film for four years, and it is a worthy one.
There are a couple of good Fields-McHugh numbers in the film, but these are augmented by two genuine Cuban songs, one of which is reprised by Cuban artist Ernesto Lecuono, triggering a Proustian moment for our hero. The other is well-performed by Velez and nicely staged by W S Van Dyke, directing the first of the eleven musicals he worked on. Overall, his direction is fluid, with camera movement working in support of the narrative.
Lawrence Tibbett performs with himelf years before Gene Kelly thought of it
Mention must be made, finally, of Jimmy Durante, energetic as always in his supporting role, and playing the most unlikely-looking member of the US Marine Corps.
1917. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, three marines–Terry, Romance and O O Jones–are on shore leave and getting tattoos [Tramps at Sea]. O O, who refuses to tell his friends what the initials stand for, is unhappy with the tattoo of his girlfriend Elvira. He is taunted by his friends, they fight and, as always, end up in the brig.
Romance (Ernest Torrence) and O O (Jimmy Durante), with Terry (Lawrence Tibbett) at the wheel, out to see the sights in Havana
Just before their ship leaves for Cuba, Terry’s brother John brings Terry’s fiancee Crystal on board to say goodbye. Crystal pretends to be happy with Terry’s wandering life, but cries after he leaves her.
In Havana, Terry and his friends are escaping by car from the husbands of three married women when they hit a peanut vendor’s cart. Romance and O O flee the scene. The owner of the cart, Nenita Lopez, causes a fuss and is outraged when Terry kisses her.
At the police station, Nenita wants to press charges until she discovers Terry could get 20 years. With Terry’s help, she runs away to get help, and Terry is freed when his crewmates, led by Romance and O O, arrive en masse outside the station.
Terry tracks down the cabin where Nenita lives with her aunt and uncle. She tries to be standoffish, but succumbs to Terry’s charm.
Nenita (Lupe Velez) gets to know Terry
Later, Terry and his friends join Nenita at a picnic where she dances seductively [Spanish Song]. Terry and Nenita walk together and she explains the meaning of a lullaby [El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)].
On Carnival Day, Terry and Nenita meet again. He helps her sell her peanuts [El Manisero], then they spend the rest of the day together [The Cuban Love Song]. They arrive back at Nenita’s home in the middle of the night. Terry follows Nenita into her room and tries to force himself on her, but she resists. Terry leaves after Aunt Rosa almost catches him, having decided not to force Nenita into anything. Nenita follows him outside and they make love in his car.
Later, Terry receives a letter from Crystal, gently complaining that he has not written to her. All the crew going on shore leave have to provide details of where they are going, because the ship is on a war footing. Terry finds Nenita has left home after quarreling about him with Aunt Rosa. She wants to follow Terry wherever he goes. Terry advises her to go back, but she refuses.
Terry spends his furlough with Nenita, but war is declared while he is away. O O and Romance lead an expedition up the river to bring back Terry [The Cuban Love Song]. Nenita realizes what is happening and packs her bags, saying she will go back home. She tries to pretend everything is fine, but finally she cries in his arms.
Terry, Romance and O O are sent to France, and Terry is seriously injured.
Back in America, Terry is cared for by his brother and Crystal. He despairs of ever getting better and tells Crystal he cannot marry her. When she refuses to listen, he tells her about Nenita and says he would go back to her if he could. Crystal says that is okay, but she is the one he needs right now.
Ten years later, Terry is in a nightclub celebrating his tenth anniversary with Crystal. The band plays the song Nenita used to sing [El Manisero] and he becomes thoughtful. Finally, Terry walks out of the nightclub.
The reunion of OO, Romance and Terry
Walking down the street, Terry comes across Romance, whom he has not seen for many years. Together, they go to the apartment where O O lives with Elvira and their many children. Elivira reveals that O O’s initials stand for Oswald Obadiah.
They all get drunk and make so much noise that the police are called. When they are released from the police station, Romance calls it a night. Terry and O O find themselves by the docks and O O goes to find a drugstore. Left alone, Terry’s guilt about not returning to Nenita grows [The Cuban Love Song] and he boards a ship bound for Havana. O O follows him, under the impression it is the Hoboken ferry.
In Havana, Terry searches for Nenita, and eventually learns that she is dead. He visits her grave and meets a young boy who turns out to be Nenita’s son, and whose name is also Terry. The boy has never met his father, but Nenita always said that he would come back one day. Terry takes his son back to New York, where Crystal meets them off the boat. She is happy to become a mother to young Terry. Terry and Crystal kiss.
